User:JaylesHowler/Political Correctness
Political correctness is the avoidance of certain actions—such as using certain words or phrases—which are perceived to be discriminatory, marginalizing, or offensive to people who are seen as socially underprivileged.[1] Political correctness has been criticized as a form of censorship by some of its opponents, who compare political correctness to newspeak[2], a fictional language seen in the George Orwell novel 1984 created by an authoritarian state intended to prevent certain forms of expression. Words or actions which do not conform to political correctness are called politically incorrect, which can be used both as a positive and as a negative label, by political correctness' opponents and proponents, respectively.
In the 1960's, the proponents of political correctness began promoting—and, in some cases, enforcing—it, in order to prevent expression seen as discriminatory against people of certain religions, nationalities, genders, or sexual orientations. Feminists criticized the use of he, him, or his as gender-neutral pronouns, and promoted expressions like he or she, him or her, and they, the last of which, the plural they, is grammatically according to some style guides.[3]
